Towards disaster-risk sensitive investments: The Disaster Risk-Integrated Operational Risk Model
This document presents the methodology and key findings of a policy-benchmarking framework that assesses country-specific policies and institutions for disaster risk management. The report is in response to a global shift towards improved disaster risk management; a growing number of countries have national agencies tasked with monitoring natural hazards, as well as national contingency measures enshrined in their laws or strategic plans. The Disaster Risk-Integrated Operational Risk (DRIOR) model is the first risk assessment tool to mainstream disaster risk into operational risk and provides a new perspective to both policymakers focused on improving disaster risk management capabilities and business leaders looking to expand into new markets and needing to assess their risk levels.
The development of the DRIOR model has generated insight into common trends and differences between the 20 countries that are included in this pilot. The findings of the report underline the importance of investment in infrastructure, steps to protect ecosystems and human health, as well as preventive and corrective measures and contingency planning. Key findings include but are not limited to the following:
- Governments are increasingly recognising the critical role disaster preparedness plays in protecting countries against the effects of extreme weather events; policy emphasis is shifting from disaster response to disaster preparedness.
- Countries with better preparedness face lower levels of disaster risk, irrespective of their geographic exposure to extreme weather events.
- The resilience of the physical environment dictates much of a country’s overall disaster risk preparedness, stressing the importance of investment in infrastructure and planning.
The DRIOR model was commissioned by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and produced by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
